Are you a seasoned journalist looking to get more involved in The Uproot Project? We are looking for mentors to work with our 2023 class of Environmental Justice Fellows through their projects. The fellowship is aimed to help underrepresented journalists shed light on undercovered topics. We have an incredible selection of projects submitted from our 2023 fellows; you can read more about our fellows and their projects here.
Mentor Responsibilities
- Each mentor will be paired with 2 fellows. We will do our best to match fellows to mentors based on their expertise/focus.
- Story coaching: The mentor’s overall role is to coach the fellow(s) through building their story over the course of the next year (projects completed by April 2024). This coaching could range from troubleshooting sources, mining data, organizing their story (but not editing), and guidance during the pitching and publishing process. The Uproot Project will have a few planned sessions aimed at providing resources for fellows (topics like data, pitching, etc.) so the mentor’s role would be supplemental to these sessions.
- Introductory call: In the intro call, the mentor and fellow should get to know one another, review the project proposal, project plan, & project timeline. Both should identify the amount of support the fellow’s project will need from the mentor, and discuss their preferred communication method going forward.
- Quarterly check-ins: The mentor should initiate a call every 3 months to check on each fellow’s progress, see if they need help, and point them to resources that can help.
- Availability for questions as needed (via email or Slack)
- We would like to offer each mentor an honorarium of $500, paid in 2 installments
If you’re interested in serving as a mentor for our Environmental Justice Fellowship, please fill out this short application. If you have any questions, please reach out to info@uprootproject.org